Bodie panorama

bristlecone

Recent panorama - approaching storm in Bodie, California (ghost town). Canon T3i, Nodal Ninja 3, stitched in PT gui, approx. 160 degree view.

Comments & criticism welcomed.

dbd

You've created an effective picture during a difficult time of day and weather combination for Bodie. It's hard to keep things from becoming stark.

For the purpose of discussion, I would break down the image into layers of depth. There is a foreground of sage, dirt and fence segment, buildings close on both sides of center, mid-distant buildings on the right, and distant structures on the far hillside.

The foreground seems unneeded and perhaps could be removed, although that would increase the length to width ratio of the image which could make it harder to mount. There are a couple of other possibilities at that spot. If the fence on the right is the front yard of one of the houses, you could step back and include the house in the image. It would add meaningful content to the foreground level of depth in the image. The other possibility is to step forward to the road to remove some of the foreground. That would place the close buildings depth layer almost around you. That would give the whole image a different feel, YMMV on that. These two alternatives would require you to go back and re-shoot. Wouldn't that be a shame?

Dale B. Dalrymple

bristlecone

Thanks for the input Dale.....

This image was taken about 10:30am and it was very cold with the wind up. Shot from the front porch of a house that gave the needed elevation, so on the road would render a very different perspective. I never like to crop, and only minimally if I do. Not an award winner for sure, but does record the town. Going back is always on my mind.

Best,
Len

Cornflake

I don't have an intelligent critique to offer, but I liked it very much.

Ed Rozylowicz

Been there ...
Visited Bodie just 3 weeks ago ... average day, average lighting, lots of people. Stood on that very spot from where you took the image and stitched them to make an impressive panorama. I was not as lucky due to the sheer number of visitors but can offer only these comments ... composition is great, gives an overview of the major part of town ... the stamping mill in the distance (restricted entry) provides the impression that it "looms" over the town; very clear and distinct; I like it ... the partial view of a fence on the right is not a distraction (to me), for having been there in person, and I know that spot precisely, it provides depth or distance from your stance and the town proper. Isn't that the intent of the stitch anyway? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I suspect that you composed and finalized the image to suit YOUR impressions. That's all that counts. As to my own experience in Bodie, I made a major error in setting my NIKON D300 to shoot in the "Rockwell.com" (as opposed to Standard) saturation mode which resulted in over-saturated images, i.e., not realistic as to true color. I likewise will stitch my own panoramas but, in my honest opinion, your pano is superior than what I will achieve. Summary ... great image, good saturation, good composition. Bodie ... what a great historical site and I've been to all ghost towns in New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona. Photo ops are tremendous in Bodie.

black mamba

I think it's a damned impressive shot. I'd be proud of it.

Tom

bristlecone

Ed Rozylowicz wrote: »

Visited Bodie just 3 weeks ago ... average day, average lighting, lots of people. Stood on that very spot from where you took the image and stitched them to make an impressive panorama. I was not as lucky due to the sheer number of visitors but can offer only these comments ... composition is great, gives an overview of the major part of town ... the stamping mill in the distance (restricted entry) provides the impression that it "looms" over the town; very clear and distinct; I like it ... the partial view of a fence on the right is not a distraction (to me), for having been there in person, and I know that spot precisely, it provides depth or distance from your stance and the town proper. Isn't that the intent of the stitch anyway? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I suspect that you composed and finalized the image to suit YOUR impressions. That's all that counts. As to my own experience in Bodie, I made a major error in setting my NIKON D300 to shoot in the "Rockwell.com" (as opposed to Standard) saturation mode which resulted in over-saturated images, i.e., not realistic as to true color. I likewise will stitch my own panoramas but, in my honest opinion, your pano is superior than what I will achieve. Summary ... great image, good saturation, good composition. Bodie ... what a great historical site and I've been to all ghost towns in New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona. Photo ops are tremendous in Bodie.

Thanks Ed, I appreciate your comments greatly. I was indeed fortunate to have a clear field of view (no people, except for the couple walking up the road to the stamp mill), and a decent sky. I always shoot in RAW, thereby leaving all color control in post-processing. Are you stitching your panoramas by hand? I got the impressing that maybe you are. I once did that, with limited success. Now I use PT gui. It's wonderful. Just asking.

Best,
-Len

bristlecone

black mamba wrote: »

I think it's a damned impressive shot. I'd be proud of it.

Tom

Thanks Tom..... I do like it, and it's quite nice on 13 wide roll paper.

kdog

Excellent composition. You got the whole town which is awesome. The image appears pretty flat and a bit underexposed to me. It looks like it was shot through a window, or maybe it's just haze. I would bump the white point and apply a curve. This image then really pops and takes on an almost 3D effect. (I tried it.)

Ed Rozylowicz

bristlecone wrote: »

Thanks Ed, I appreciate your comments greatly. I was indeed fortunate to have a clear field of view (no people, except for the couple walking up the road to the stamp mill), and a decent sky. I always shoot in RAW, thereby leaving all color control in post-processing. Are you stitching your panoramas by hand? I got the impressing that maybe you are. I once did that, with limited success. Now I use PT gui. It's wonderful. Just asking.

Best,
-Len

Well Sir ... you just reminded me that a colleague suggests that I shoot in RAW + Jpeg; just in case I need some major color adjustments. I never heeded his advice because I shoot primarily as a reminder of my many trips and for posting a 'travelogue' of sorts on my personal family web site. Since digital "film" is so cheap, I just reset my NIKON shooting mode to RAW + Jpeg ... hopefully to eliminate such blunders in the future. I'm always willing to admit my mistakes and to not be ashamed to show what results from my errors. I stated that I was in Bodie; I took several images in the intent to stitch a panorama. Because my original over-saturated images were (to put it mildly) pure c*ap, I made the best effort to salvage what I could. I stitched one such panorama, made every possible color correction in Corel's Paint Shop Pro, stitched using PabaVue Assembler, and re-sized to limit file size and hopefully show it here (my first effort). The final product, when viewed at 100% is sharp as a tack but clearly shows oversaturation. Compared to your pano, it plainly sucks; but, what cannot be recovered cannot be displayed. My pano is reverse of yours ... it was taken from the stamping mill pointing in the direction from where you took you pano. No sympathies needed from the DGrin family; I made a mistake, learned from it, and am making a course correction to my shooting methods.

bristlecone

Well I think this image can be improved Ed. I did it. Desaturate the yellows and reds and adjust the sky, and it looks pretty good. You do have some stitching errors though. Imagine this town back in the day...